Announcing the launch of three contests: The mascot 2010 contest, the program book 2009 cover contest, and the pocket programming guide 2009 cover contest!

Artists, here's your chance to make your work a part of Kumoricon.

The winner of the mascot contest will receive a free Artist Alley booth at Kumoricon 2010.

The winners of each cover contest will receive a free Kumoricon 2009 T-shirt, and the winner's choice of one other Kumoricon merchandise item.

The mascot will be prominently used in Kumoricon art and publicity material for the 2010 convention year, including but not limited to the web site, promotional flyers and posters, advertisements, merchandise, and badges. It should be an immediately attractive, original, anime-style character or characters reflecting the "cloudy" theme of Kumoricon, typically with an umbrella. We need two versions: one adult or teen, and one chibi.

The cover of the 2009 convention program book introduces attendees to the convention upon arrival; every attendee receives one. It is full color and letter size. Fully detailed, colorful backgrounds and foregrounds work best.

The cover of the 2009 pocket programming guide is a smaller, simpler design, in grayscale. Lightly detailed and shaded or all-white backgrounds, with strong, contrasting shades, lines, and geometric patterns work best.

Due date and time: Sunday, July 5, 11:59:59pm, Pacific Daylight Time.How to enter: Email to publicity@kumoricon.org, with the files included as attachments (or a link to the download if it is too big to email). You can also arrange alternate delivery as long as it arrives by the due date and time.Who may enter: Anyone except Kumoricon board members and Kumoricon staff who are involved in running the contest.What must be included to enter:

1. The full name of the entrant or all entrants.2. The name or nickname to display as credit in the gallery.3. A working email address where you can be contacted (if not specified it will be assumed the one it is sent from).

Summary of rules: (see fint print below for full rules)

Entries should represent themes of Kumoricon, such as clouds, the color blue, or umbrellas. (These are examples, and an entry need not have all of these things.)

Winning entries, including variations, become the intellectual property of Kumoricon.

Kumoricon may display all entries in galleries or use them as extra art.

Entries must be solely the original work of the credited entrants.

Entries cannot have been used by other organizations (such as mascots for other anime conventions).

Entries must be appropriate for all ages, and appropriate for Kumoricon publicity.

An entrant can enter multiple, completely unique entries.

An entrant can update an entry, replacing its prior version.

We may, at our discretion, accept slightly late entries, with penalty.

For book cover entries, if the same design is entered and wins for both books, the Kumoricon board may select the second-place winner instead for one of the two.

Entries should be at least 300dpi (for the mascot, assume filling a letter-sized page), or vector format. Our printer prints pure black at 1200dpi. Typed text should be kept outlined, if possible.

Entries may be submitted in any graphics format that can be read by Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, GIMP, Inkscape, Firefox, or any MS Office program. This includes PNG, JPG, PSD, AI, PDF. We recommend using a non-lossy format, with as high of quality settings as possible.

For book cover entries, please submit with text, but keep the text on a separate layer. We may need to move or change text, so we may request, for a winning entry, a version with no text, or with specific text changes. "Kumoricon" is spelled exactly as shown (no hyphen, no spaces, only "K" capitalized).

For book cover entries, we may crop entries which are at an incorrect aspect ratio. Entries at a severely wrong aspect ratio may be disqualified.

Nobody can use the forums to talk about specific entries until voting has ended.

Mascot contest

Color format: Full color

Rules:

Each entry must contain an adult or teen mascot, and chibi mascot, of the same character and style.

Although typically the mascot is one person or character, it may be more than one, but the totality of the mascot must be drawn in both standard and chibi forms.

Program book cover contest

Aspect ratio: 8.5" by 11" (portrait)Color format: Full color

Pocket guide cover contest

Aspect ratio: 8.5" by 5.5" (landscape)Color format: Grayscale

Contest administration summary (see fine print below for full rules)

We will confirm entries as they are received.

Voting will be performed online by staff over a weeklong period, with the entries anonymized, with the staff ranking any or all of the entrants as desired and the Schulze method used to determine the winners.

Once voting is closed we'll post the galleries publicly before the winners are announced.

The mascot contest winner will be announced at the Closing Ceremonies of Kumoricon 2009.

The cover contest winners will be announced at the bag stuffing meeting prior to Kumoricon 2009 when the staff get their first looks at the books. Right after this meeting we'll announce it online.

If we receive a large number of entries, we may pre-screen them. (We haven't needed to do this yet, and our ranked voting system accommodates large numbers of entries, but we may if need be.)

We reserve the right to modify the contest once it is underway, or even after it closes, if unforeseen circumstances require it. (For example, extend the due date if we don't get enough entries, or repeat the contest, or even throw it out, if we lose data.) If this happens, due care will be taken to follow the spirit of the rules and be as fair as possible to all entrants.

The fine print

All rules stated above apply. Additionally, these rules in the "fine print" section apply, and take precedence if they address the same issue as the above in more detail.

Winning entries become the intellectual property of Kumoricon, including alternate variations or derivate works of the winning entry that the artist may have already drawn or may later draw (whether or not by request of Kumoricon). Therefore, all entrants commit to this possibility at the time of entering. Once a winner for each contest has been announced, this commitment is relieved for all non-winning entries in that contest.

Winning entrants retain the rights to display, copy, distribute, and sell their winning art for strictly personal purposes (no publicity purposes), provided the entrants do not imply or state that they represent Kumoricon, and provided that the pieces of art so distributed or displayed are not implied to be or represented as official pieces of Kumoricon merchandise, unless Kumoricon has authorized such activities.

Entrants give perpetual permission for Kumoricon to display their entries in galleries and to use the entries as ancillary art in program, signage, and publicity material produced for the 2009 and 2010 conventions, whether or not those entries win the contest.

Entries must be original work, and solely the work of the entrant or entrants. Entrants must be authorized and able to assign ownership of the entry to Kumoricon, and to grant Kumoricon permission for the described uses, per the above rules describing such.

More than one person may contribute jointly to an entry, but all people must be identified in the submission and are considered entrants.

Entries may not have been previously used for publicity purposes by any organization or person. (It is acceptable, however, if the entry was previously or is currently displayed in a gallery; for example, a portfolio of that artist's work.)

Content and theme: Entries must be appropriate for all ages. Content, design, and themes of the entries must be appropriate and suitable for their intended uses, including their use as publicity for Kumoricon, at the discretion of the Director of Publicity or the Kumoricon board.

Entries displayed for voting in the contest must be anonymous, and not have identifying marks. All displayed entries will be credited to their entrants after the close of voting. Entrants, if they wish, may submit a second version containing a signature or marks which will be used for future display in contest galleries.

Entrants must not talk about or link to their entries, or discussion about their entries, or any entries in the contest, on the Kumoricon forums, private messages, mailing lists, or other Kumoricon communication systems, or bulk messages of any form to staff, until we have announced that a winner has been determined. (Non-entrants are also obliged to obey this rule, as a rule of the forums.) This is to help ensure fairness in the voting.

An entrant may enter more than once, but each design must be completely unique from others by the same entrant. (That is, if two different people had produced them, neither could be said to be copying from the other.)

An entrant may send an updated version of an entry prior to the due date for entries, replacing the prior entry.

Entries received very shortly after the due time of 11:59:59pm may be accepted at our discretion, but if they are, we reserve the right to apply a score penalty to those entries in the voting formula based on how late they are. Because we usually receive some late entries, this is probably the most fair way to handle this situation in order to be fair both to those who entered on time, and those who may have experienced delays uploading large files.

We will confirm to entrants that their entries have been received. We will send confirmations as we receive entries. Entrants are responsible for entering soon enough so that if there is a problem with the entry, it can be re-sent by the due date for entries. We reserve the right to accept late entries in individual cases if there is a problem due to our error, but entrants are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their entries are received in time.

Voting is open to staff who have officially registered (submitted signed form and paid dues) by the start of voting. Staff registering after this point may still vote if we enter their data before the close of voting.

Voting will be done online shortly after the close of voting. Voting will be performed using the Schulze method, which is a type of Condorcet method. In this method, voters rank their choices in order rather than selecting just one. There are many systems of ranked voting which compute the winner differently. The method used here, the Schulze method, has been selected because among all known ranked voting systems, it most encourages voters to rank their choices in their true order of preference, rather than using "strategic voting". For example, if voters were to only select one choice, then voters would be discouraged from picking their true favorite if they didn't perceive it to be popular, because it would be "wasting" a vote. However, with the Schulze method, it is in each voter's best interest to list their true entire preference order. Ultimately, this system makes it most likely that the true preference of the voters, as a group, is selected as the winner. Voters don't need to rank every candidate on their ballots, but it is in their best interest to do so. (Voting for just one does not increase the weight or "strength" of that vote.)

Entries which do not meet the criteria in the rules may be disqualified, and entrants not participating in the contest according to the rules may have their entries disqualified. If this is discovered after a winner is announced, the award may be revoked.

If an insufficient number of entries is received, an unsuitable entry is chosen in the voting, or if, for any reason, the voting cannot be completed, for reasons including, but not limited to, technical problems with the voting, loss or corruption of ballot data, or insufficient number of votes received, then the Kumoricon board reserves the right to extend the due date for entries, change the start or end dates of voting, annul the voting, run a new election, or choose an entry as the winner, at its option. If, for any reason, the selected winner is not the winner determined by the voting, Kumoricon will release a statement identifying such fact.

Kumoricon reserves the right to add or modify rules, or make special allowances or changes to the contest, at its discretion, to resolve any unforeseen circumstances or problems which may arise, in the interest of ensuring fairness and seeing that the contest is completed according to the intent and spirit of the rules.

is there a limit to entries we can submit in each catorgory? I read through the guidelines/rules but didnt see the answer. Thanks.

Do these rules answer your questions?

Quote

An entrant may enter more than once, but each design must be completely unique from others by the same entrant. (That is, if two different people had produced them, neither could be said to be copying from the other.)

An entrant may send an updated version of an entry prior to the due date for entries, replacing the prior entry.

Entries may not have been previously used for publicity purposes by any organization or person. (It is acceptable, however, if the entry was previously or is currently displayed in a gallery; for example, a portfolio of that artist's work.)

Entrants must not talk about or link to their entries, or discussion about their entries, or any entries in the contest, on the Kumoricon forums, private messages, mailing lists, or other Kumoricon communication systems, or bulk messages of any form to staff, until we have announced that a winner has been determined. (Non-entrants are also obliged to obey this rule, as a rule of the forums.) This is to help ensure fairness in the voting.

Most likely somebody who at closing will announce it in this thread before we get a chance to, which is perfectly fine. We'll have the online gallery posted by that time (without noting which one is the winner), so somebody will just need to link to the winner.

It usually takes someone to ask before someone spills the beans. You're right, though. From what I've seen the past two years, it's a little while for the website to get updated. Not that that's a bad thing, really.